I got mine from Bookers, and my local store does it for about

Quote from: Secret Santa on February 19, 2020, 07:46 PM
Of course, like most fools, I ignore such advice and just tuck in.

Now that I find surprising, because although I cannot open a packet of Richmond pork sausages without eating at least one or two raw, and despite the fact that I have eaten pure raw pork (shredded) in Vietnam, I have never considered (and probably would never consider) eating raw Patak's pastes.  Why do you do it, Santa ?

** Phil.

Romain, I don't understand how tasting it raw would be of any benefit whatsoever.  You might as well get a handful of different spices like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, a couple of cloves and a green cardamom, a tej patta and a bit of cinnamon and start to munch on it.  It will give you no indication at all about what would happen when you cook them. SS, the simple question is WHY?

Curry pastes, (and dry masalas) are made as a short cut to achieve a desired outcome "once you know what goes into it in the finished cooked dish that you want to replicate easily". I have a recipe for a Balti Paste that I've made several times.  It is a combination of typical Balti spices blended together in a ratio that is known to work and set into some vinegar and oil to act as preservatives and enable convenient storage.  There is no way that munching on some of it will tell me what the dish will taste like once I've cooked it.  However. add some to a bit of oil and fry it, add some base gravy and whack in some pre-cooked chicken or lamb and you have a nice dish. Quick and easy.

I've also used it to save a few failed curries.  Would I taste it raw? No way. I'm not afraid of poisoning myself but it is the same as eating some flour, salt, and baking powder and trying to predict the flavour of a cake.

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on February 19, 2020, 08:51 PMWhy do you do it, Santa ?

** Phil.

Purely in the interests of science!

No, what I meant was that I taste anything, not just pastes, even if only in tiny amounts to get a sense of what I'm using in my dishes. And also just for the hell of it too. I'm not eating spoonfuls of the stuff.

Although I must say that knowing that it's not supposed to be eaten raw does add a certain zest to life. I wish I could find that email response though to remind me what the big no-no was about eating it raw. I bet I've posted it on the forum somewhere in the murky past.

If I were trying to recreate the taste of a cake I would not eat flour. But if I were to try to recreate the taste of flour I wouldn't eat cake either.

I set out to recreate Patak's tandoori paste so I tasted Patak's tandoori paste. Not really understanding why that doesn't make sense...